Broken
by ShadowChik
Summary: After the untimely death of famous Katie Bell, her friends share their feelings and fondest memories, along with their heartbreaks and sorrows. [COMPLETE]
1. Prologue

Prologue

The Year That the Quidditch Cup was returned to Gryffindor:

_Katie Bell stood on the muddy pitch, torrents of rain pounding about her and the wind howled around her. The very same blue sky had committed treachery, and had opened up in a downpour. The rain pounded on her light brown hair, and it had since turned dark in it's sopping wet state. Her scarlet Gryffindor quidditch robes billowed about her as she held her broom out._

_"What's the matter, KB?" Fred called, from his place on his hovering broom. Across the center of the pitch, the Hufflepuffs did the same. Getting ready for the toss-up, floating opposite the other team's players._

_Katie just shook her head and planted her broom into the mud. "It's so windy." She said simply, shouting to be heard, raising a hand in the air, trying to get a feel for which way the harsh wind was blowing. For whichever that was, she would have to over-compensate by flying the other way. _

_Alicia spoke up. "Oh, Katie. You've flown in wind before." She kicked her feet impatiently, dragging them across the grass. _

_Katie shook her head. "Never wind this violent." She pivoted around on her toes, looking for a break in the dark grey clouds. "Never like this."_

_"Get on your broom, __Bell__!", Wood barked, giving her a superior glare. "This is Hufflepuff! We can't forfeit because you're afraid of a little storm." At his statement, two things had happened. The Hufflepuffs had become hostile looking, glaring at the back of Wood's head and muttering amongst themselves. And the wind kicked up. _

_Katie looked hurt and torn. "Wood, Just give me a second!" She planted her feet and hopped up and down a couple of times, judging the wind speed and if it hampered her own ability. _

_BELL__!", Wood growled, as he tumbled off his own broom. "GET ON YOUR BLOODY BROOM!" His face began to turn red. "I AM NOT GOING TO FORFEIT THIS MATCH!" His seventh year glare caught Katie off guard, as Oliver looked murderous. "Just fly! That's all you have to do Katie! You don't even have to score! Just keep the quaffle away from the over sized canaries!" He shot a menacing glare towards the aggressive looking Hufflepuffs. His face became sympathetic looking._

_"And so what if you have to fall a couple dozen feet? Gryffindor will win the bloody cup!" Oliver's eyes gaze glazed over, even as he thought about it. Snapping into reality, Wood grabbed Katie's shoulders and shook her. "This is my chance Katie!"_

_Katie blinkned a couple of times, before shoving the manic boy away. Looking cautiously in his direction, she held out her broom rather like a shield. "I know Oliver. I never said that I wasn't going to fly. I just needed a minute."_

_Mounting her broom rather unsteadily, she grasped George's arm for support. "The boy's mad, I tell you", she whispered into his ear before regaining her balance._

_The red-head regarded her with a humorous and concerned look. "He's always been this way. You okay, Katie?" George grabbed the front of her broom to keep Katie from toppling off of it. _

_Katie nodded. Wiping off the handle of her broom so she could have a better grip, she clutched it in a death grip. Her wet hair whipping her cheek. Nodding to Wood in what she hoped was a confident way, she noted him give a signal to Madam Hooch. _

_Tugging George's strong hand from her broom, she gave it a squeeze and a brave smile before dropping it at her side. "I just don't want to die playing something that I love so much."_

_"I just don't want to get hurt. I just don't want anyone to get hurt." Katie gave George a friendly slap on the back. "So you watch those bludgers, or you're the one getting hurt!" She made a fist and laughed. _

_The shrill whistle of Madam Hooch's sounded and the quaffle was tossed in the air. Two sets of players kicked off the ground towards it. _

_And still it rained, the downpour washing away all doubts of hurt. And the storm still howled, drowning out all noise except the shouts of team mates._

_And still fourteen people lived their dream. Uninterrupted by the thought of tomorrow. Victory only on their minds. They knew of nothing else._


	2. Fairy Tale

Chapter 1: Fairy Tale

Katie was my best friend.

I say 'was'. Past tense. Once 'was'…Not anymore. A memory. Katie Bell is dead.

Not dead like in stories…only to return the next day in a great expanse of light, claiming to have played a trick. Or dead like a muggle cartoon…bouncing back a moment later. Dead dead.

I want to cry. I really do. All I want to do is sob into my pillow. To cry until I have no more tears. Weep all the tears that I've held back since Lee told me this morning. Just this morning. It hasn't even been that long and it's already felt like four eternities.

I wasn't there. I wish that I was…The greatest regrets are ones after they can be fulfilled, though. I wasn't. That is that. I can't let my mind be consumed with Maybes…with What If?'s. What's done is done.

Katie was the kind of person that you couldn't help but love. A person that you couldn't help but want to be around. In my first year, I had attached myself to her in desperation. We were two scared girls, not knowing what the future would hold for us. We had been inseparable since then.

I remember back in our dormitory, Katie would busy herself in her free time by reading books. All sorts off books…Anything, really, to catch her fancy. Her favorites were Fairy Tales. She would come across the most fantastic passages and read them out loud to myself and Angelina. They mostly had to do with bravery, or the rescuing of a damsel in distress.

She would declare, after each and every reading, that she would once live a Fairy Tale life. Stomping her foot and lifting her chin stubbornly, she proclaimed that one day—her prince would not only come, but she would get to slay a couple of dragons along the way. She promised us that she would not rest until she saw every inch of the bloody earth. Magic to match.

_" 'Licia__! Angelina!", Katie called excitedly to her friends. "C'mere! I want to read you this!" _

_Katie sat, more or less, hunched over in an armchair in the Common Room. Her hair pulled up out of her face and her blue eyes trained on the book in front of her. As if she looked away for a moment, the words may jump off the page itself. _

_Alicia situated herself on the coffee table across from the chair that her best friend sat in. Glancing at her watch, she crossed her legs under her. Used to these odd moments where Katie forgot dinner or Hogsmeade, she just calmly looked to Angelina. Angelina, who had been holding a conversation with the Weasley Twins, glanced over._

_As soon as Katie was sure that she held their attention, she began to read:_

"Many of the pyramids of Egypt are cursed with an anti-muggle spell. This was amazing magic for this time and the spells worked surprisingly well. Mummified muggles are still found, even today, with many abnormalities that can only be described as magical.

_She looked up from the pages grinning, even at this macabre fact. "Brilliant, isn't it?" she asked the girls, looking from face to face, then back at the book. "I'm going to see it one day! I'm going!", she proclaimed, her disposition from sunny to explosive. "__Egypt__! How grand!"_

_"You mean hot?", Fred interjected. "Horribly uncomfortable weather down there. Bill-"_

_"-Works there for-", George interrupted._

_"-Gringotts and-"_

_"-We went to see him this summer. You remember-"_

_"-Don't you KB?"_

_Katie looked wildly from one twin to another. But had them sorted out when Fred used his nickname for her. "Yes. But then of course you remember the pranks that you sent me, o 'course…"_

_"Well, yes. We did manage-"_

_"-To find some shade-"_

_"-Inside a joke shop-"_

_"-Funny little place it was. You'd think-"_

_"-That the owner-"_

_"-May have heard of English at one time, or another."_

_Angelina snorted, rolling her eyes. "I'd put my money on it being illegal, nonetheless." She swatted Fred over the head. "Even in __Egypt__…" She sighed playfully._

_Katie, lost in thought, began to laugh. "I don't care…I'm still going…"_

And me and Angelina would believe her. I'm not sure whether it was the tone of her voice or the conviction written on her face…But we always believed her. We knew that Katie could do great things. We had seen it done. And we knew. We knew that she would hold true to this pledge.

And…now…Katie was gone. And one promise lay broken. Shattered, as if nothing. And suddenly…When I look at a book, I want to throw it across the room. It reminds me of everything that Katie cannot be. Everything that she will never do.

Every Fairy Tale that she will never live.

Once upon a time.


	3. Struggle

Chapter 2: Struggles

Of all of the people to be hurt by her dying, I bet you wouldn't have figured that I would be the brunt of it all. Go figure.

I loved KB as much as the next person, heck, more than most people. I've known her for the longest time. Since our Hogwarts years, that is. Helluva quidditch player, that girl was. Not bad at getting out of trouble, either. She was never bad at anything, I remember. She struggled sometimes. But she was never bad.

I'm trying to be like her and struggle through it. I'm trying not to admit defeat. I _never _admit defeat. But it is getting so hard to struggle. I just want to admit to everyone that I'm not mature enough to go through this, and I never will be. That I will never be ready for this heartache and misery that this has brought into my usual merry and blissful life.

If Katie had known in what a place she had put us into when this tragedy occurred, she wouldn't have done it. Died, that is. She would have hung on by the skin of her teeth. She would have had to have been dragged kicking and screaming into hell by the Grim Reaper himself.

But she didn't go to hell, I'm sure. And she didn't hold on. She didn't know she had to. She didn't know what it would have brought, and that I would have to carry most of the weight myself.

George walks around like death itself when he isn't holed up inside our old room, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling intently. Quietly. Now he is silent as he casts his eyes over the plaster. Right after it happened, he used to pray a lot. Asking God to take care of her, and to make sure that she will always be alright. Because that used to be his job. Not officially, not yet, anyway. But he did. Throughout Hogwarts and even still after. Sometime between there he gave her a ring. You see, to George that meant that he would always be there for her. I think that he feels guilty. He broke his promise. They were never even married. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, and every other nameable holiday, Katie would come over to stay here at the Burrow. Her family wasn't the kind that would get together. They were more of the Christmas cards types and the people who shook hands with old friends rather than giving hugs.

Mum and Ginny loved having here. Someone to dote on, they loved that. And Katie and George couldn't have been happier. George and I had our joke shop, Katie had her career, and they both had each other. Everything was fine and dandy.

Mum has gotten rather somber. Her motherly charm had somehow gotten greater, But in a worried way. She is always worried about something happening to one of her children. After all, something had happened to Katie, one of her 'adoptive' children. Now she worries constantly. It's hard to get away from.

And Angelina. Angelina, Angelina, Angelina. Light of my bloody life. She's changed. So much. I still love her…more that anyone in the world. But she's quieter. Darker in the sense that she acts like she will never see another happy thing in her life. I remember what fun we had. We've only been married for a couple of months, but already I can feel her pulling away. She doesn't want to be comforted and she doesn't want me right now. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. If George was entirely here, we would have a talk about 'those bloody beautiful women' over a fire whisky. Maybe even with Charlie or Bill. But I am so lost. None of us wanted to lose Katie, why is she taking it out on us? Can't she talk to me about it?

Sometimes, I don't want to understand anymore.

Sometimes, I want to know why God did this to us. The worst thing that we all ever did was flood the hallway on the second floor. Maybe even using that Hurling Hex on Flint once. But why would he punish us for that? Katie was always the one that kept us from being logical for too long. Helped up with our finances. Joked around with us. She was the dreamer.

_"I'll race you!", eleven year old Katie Bell cried as she raced down the hall ahead of her friends, her muddy feet skidding and leaving a trail on the carpet. Her quidditch robes billowed behind her and the white 'A' for alternate, was clearly visible._

_"No fair!", Angelina screeched as she took off behind Katie, in similar attire. "Hey!" Alicia shouted, as Katie barely missed trampling on her feet._

_Stumbling around a corner, Katie stood before the Fat Lady, panting as she brushed her blonde hair off of her forehead. "Um…Flibbit…flabber…fibber…", she babbled, as she searched her mind for the password. The Fat Lady just looked at her with a pitiful expression on her face._

_"Fibbetigidget!", a red haired twin from around the corner hollered. "Katie Bell, how do you manage to forget that password--"_

_"--So fast?", the other twin bellowed just as loudly. "We only just got it yesterday—"_

_"—And here you forget it already! If you're not careful--"_

_"—You might just get locked out one day!"_

_Katie crossed her eyes at the twins and a figure that was standing quite infuriated beside them. "So I've heard once before." Cocking her head to the side, she looked as if she were thinking. "Or was it twice?"_

_"Or a hundred!", a twin cried out grinning madly._

_"It could have been a thousand.", the other said thoughtfully._

_"Maybe", Katie said, looking straight at the figure. "Care to remind us Percy?"_

_"Enlighten us!", a twin fell to the ground on his knees, bowing toward his older brother._

_"Tell us, oh, constable Percy.", cried the other as he imitated the first._

_Katie followed suit, and as she watched Percy stride down the hall angrily, she burst into giggles._

We never learned. I know now, I guess. I'm just trying to follow the example that she set. I'll just have to try to be like her and hope that it works out.

Because even the best of us have to struggle for everything to turn out alright.

She did.


	4. Shooting Star

Chapter 3: Shooting Star

I wish... Oh, God, I wish for so many things.

I wish that Fred would stop trying to understand. He will never understand the friendship that Katie and I shared. It's one of those friendships that stems from respect, and soon that bond becomes so strong. Because you know that you can always trust each other. I will never be able to let go of all the sadness that this has left me with. At least, I'm pretty sure that I won't. I mean... I hope that I won't. I will never find another friendship like the one that I had with Katie.

I wish that Alicia will let go of her anger and come back to us. Especially back to Lee. He doesn't have anyone. They need each other more than any two humans possibly could, and yet...they can't see it. I need someone who understands how I feel. It doesn't matter that Fred and George have been in touch with the Bells forever. It doesn't matter that Lee could talk quidditch endlessly with her, and did every chance that they got. Alicia and me and Katie...we had something different.

I wish that I can stop feeling this way. Whenever I go outside, I can't help but thinking that the flowers won't bloom in the spring, that the sun won't rise again, that my family will disappear into thin air. I can't help it. She won't laugh again; she won't read out loud again, she won't love anymore. She can't feel anymore.

Sometimes I am envious.

And most of all...I wish that she could come back. Back to us. That none of this ever happened.

She was so young, and yet...now she's gone. That has to mean that it can happen the same way for someone else. That it will.

I've been trying to distance myself from Fred. I'm afraid that it will happen to him. I can't survive another heartache like this. I'll die. And Fred...I'd take my own life. If he died, my heart will never heal.

Katie was so lively. What she believed...there was no end. And she never thought twice about telling Alicia and me in such an extravagant way that you could almost believe that if you blew that one, pure and snowy white dandelion, your dreams would all come true.

"_Let me think about what I want to wish..." Katie Bell scrunched her face up as she thought over the frosty midnight grass, her face turned upwards and her eyes bright. The moon shone down and snowflakes fell slowly...ever so slowly...as if they had all the time in the world..._

"_You are fifteen, Katie. And you still believe in wishes?", Alicia chattered, twisting the end of her long, dark plait around a finger. She rolled her eyes up to the sky and shivered beneath her heavy scarlet cloak._

"_You're sixteen, Alicia...And you don't?", Katie never took her eyes off of the sky, dragging a toe through the ice. "Now let me just think..."_

"_I wish that Cedric Diggory would take me to the Yule Ball!", Alicia cried, suddenly, laughing. "That's my wish. Katie! You should be able to make one quick!"_

"_And I wish that I can always be with my best friends in the world!", Angelina laughed, throwing an arm around each of her friends waists. "Go on Katie!" She shifted her weight so that she could gesture to the sky._

_Katie giggled as she gazed intently into the sky. "Give me a minute..." Her eyes found the small, shining speck that she was looking for. "I want this to be special. Shooting stars only come around once in a blue moon..."_

Right now I am stuck in a world that is cold and dark and star-less. Katie always said that when things look the darkest, shine a new light on them. I don't think I can right now. I don't think that I want to try.

I will never forget such a kind and caring girl. Her dreamy atmosphere and laid back ways will stay with me forever, along with her anecdotes and aphorisms that you could always count on to be there. Except for now. She wouldn't have wanted us in the dark like this.

Katie Bell is a Shooting Star.

People like her only come around once in a blue moon.

Make it special.


	5. Fly

Chapter 4: Fly

I couldn't believe it when I read it. The media exaggerates, you know. To make it interesting. I wouldn't have even seen the article if one of the boys hadn't have brought it in from the locker room because he noticed the resemblance of the girl in the newspaper picture and the one that I kept on my desk.

That was years ago, when that picture was taken. It was taken on a perfectly placed quidditch field, in the middle of the perfect afternoon. Gryffindor had finally won the cup. Finally. Harry Potter won us that game. But she helped.

In the picture Harry is holding the cup skyward and it is catching the sun just so. I am crying on his shoulder with as much dignity as one might have. The girls and the twins and bunched together and laughing. We are all grinning madly in this picture that never sleeps. It is constant joy. Katie has a scrape up her cheek, but she doesn't look like she cared much.

She never did. Every sacrifice was well earned and every drop of blood was for the team. I admired her for that because that is what I taught them all. She was the only one who never complained. Out of all six of them.

This was big news, or so _The Daily Prophet _proclaimed. And I didn't even know if it was true or not. Grudgingly, I unburied the paper that held all their house numbers. For further reference, you see, Angelina had told me as she slipped it into my coat pocket. Sinking my fingers into the Floo powder on my desk, I tossed it into the smouldering fire. "The Burrow," I whispered. I wouldn't contact her house.

Soon enough, a ragged face with flaming red hair arrived right in my fireplace. I wouldn't have been able to place it if I hadn't recognized the familiar freckle pattern.

"George?", I asked hesitantly. Raising an eyebrow to the fireplace, I mentally compared the twins in the picture to the one in the fireplace. This one looked tired, with circles under his eyes and hair that looked like it could use some taming.

"Fred." The head corrected. "What do you want Wood?" Fred barely sounded like himself and all the joviality was gone from his voice and features. I hadn't seen him since his own wedding and couldn't believe the laughing man from that time was the exausted of this.

"Is it true?", I asked, slowly. "Is she gone?" I ran my fingers over the smooth front page as the picture recounted her accident over and over. At least they gave her the last right of it not being written by Skeeter.

"All of it." Fred looked pained. "Every word. Wood, I have to go." Then the fireplace was dark. The room was dark. My face was dark.

Flying was always one of her strengths. She was always so graceful at it that at any moment, you expected her to leap off of her broom and stretch her arms out towards the sky.

I don't know where she is. But I expect that she is flying now. So close to that liaison that you could swear that she was from another world.

Her hands so close to clouds, that you could swear that she was touching Heaven.

I don't know positively, but I swear that somewhere, Katie Bell is flying.


	6. Shine

Chapter 5: Shine

I am glad that she's dead.

I am glad that Katie Bell is dead and gone.

She was always so bloody perfect, that it could make you puke. With her angelic blonde hair and her dark blue eyes, of course no one would notice me. Why look at me when you can fill your brain with images of her? Why talk to me when you can listen to brilliantly fabricated tales and hilarious comments and phrases that sum everything up in just an 'ever so clever' way?

She was never even arrogant. Not often, at least. I remember when I would complain about my name, she would roll her eyes and strike a fabulous pose. "There are all kind of movie stars named Madison. You know what, don't you Maddie? I would kill for Mum and Dad to have given me your name."

'Bells are Gryffindors and Ravenclaws', my mother told me, many a time. The family, pureblood mostly, had their status. And had to keep it there by instilling our family into one of these two houses. Kate was Gryffindor. I never did see until the end, how on earth she could have made it. She never made foolish decisions and thought everything through. She was amazingly intelligent. She was the perfect Bell.

I was sorted into Hufflepuff. My family chose to ignore it, the fact that I was in a lowly house. And Katie, Kate told me to be proud of it. It was always easy for her to be proud of her house. But how could I be proud of mine?

When people heard that I was a Bell, their ears perked. 'You're related to Katie Bell?' They would snigger, pointing at me. 'Your hair is black, your eyes are grey. Can you even mount a broom?'

I was always the misfit.

_Frail looking Madison Bell slipped the sorting hat on to her head. It slipped over her eyes and finally rested on her nose. A wise and age-old voice came out of it; it seemed to read every thought that had ever run through her head._

Another Bell, _the voice chimed, sounding disappointed. __Madison__ felt the need to rip it to shreds. _Sensible, you are, and intelligent. But how! What a nice addition to Ravenclaw house you would make. But here, you have determination. You want what you want, no talk of anyone else. Slytherin traits. You are fair, I see that, to people you care about. Madison, such violence! So many qualities, dear…I have no chouse but to put you in "_HUFFLEPUFF!"_

_Madison__ ripped the tattered hat off of her head as applause came from the left most side of the room. What a filthy hat, and what a decision it had made!_

_From the table donned in scarlet, Maddie could clearly see her sister giving a standing encore. Her friends whistling and clapping exuberantly. _

_In a flash of anger, __Madison__ strode over to the crimson wave of a table and crossed her arms over her cloak. She glared up at her sister with such hatred, hatred that is only reserved for the forgotten and the unloved._

_"Oh, Maddie, isn't it wonderful?", Katie gushed, clapping her hands and bouncing up and down on her toes. "We're at the most wonderful place in the world together! Oh…I'll show you everything, Maddie! The entrance to the kitchens, how to fall asleep in Binn's Class… You'll love it, sis!"_

_In a flash of anger, __Madison__ brought up her small hand and slapped her big sister soundly across the face. It was for being in Gryffindor, for being blonde, for being able to fly. For everything… _

_Katie looked down at her little sister, who was still glaring up at her, with a sad expression. "Oh, __Madison__…you will never learn, will you? You will never learn…" Ignoring the taunts from around the hall that dared her to retaliate, Katie gave her sister a look that would break anyone's heart and calmly sat down. _

She was always so happy and laughing. She always had friends and that damned Weasley. And she had a career. In something that she loved to do.

I can't do any of this.

I felt no regret as I knocked on the door of the Head Coach's office and held up a bouquet of pink roses, their sickly sweet smell giving me a high that I never thought that I would ever feel. I remember telling her clearly that I wanted to wish my sister a good luck before their big game against Ireland.

I will never feel sorry for the way that I magically unlocked the door to the broom closet and did the best thing that I have ever done for myself and for others.

Dropping a solitary rose next to her broom, I waved my wand. With a manic glint in my eye, I cast a Hurling Hex on her shining new Cleansweep 17.

I gathered up the roses and threw them away after that, all but two. One that I had left by the broom and one that I had tucked into the button hole of my black cloak.

One for spite.

Hours later, before the game, Katie talked with us. Our parents, along with those damned Weasleys, the tall Johnson girl, a rather tall man with dreadlocks, and the shorter Spinnet. She gave me the biggest hug of all and promised that she would wash the dishes the next time our family got together.

Katie started in the game, and kicked off the ground with the self-confidence and assurance that I had always admired. The attitude that made you think that she could do anything. The pink rose that I had left was tucked into her hair band. She had no idea.

From the moment that she left the ground, it was apparent that something was wrong. But it wasn't until she was at least seventy feet off the ground when her broom began to wildly buck. Her Weasley, leaned over the railing and shouted for the referee and the tall Johnson screamed at the top of her lungs. Mother leaned over and started talking to the Minister of Magic frantically while Father just leaned in and squinted his eyes.

I pulled up my hood. No one could see the secretive smile, it would have ruined everything. The rose still gleamed in my button.

Attempting the steer the broom out of danger, Katie teetered precariously before the broom gave a violent flip. I remember the horrified look that she gave us right before she it happened. I gazed her straight in the eye and pulled down my hood enough for her to see my triumphant smile.

Katie fell then. Back towards earth where she belonged. She had no right to fly with the angels. She was merely human. She barely screamed. That was the most admirable thing of all.

Suddenly, around me, my family and her friends started scrambling for the exit. I stayed where I was and watched the scene unfold before me. Strangely enough, the first to reach her was an Irish girl. She couldn't have been any older than Katie and even from the high stands I could see her blonde hair.

Placing two of her fingers on my sister's neck, she screeched for a medic as the announcer told the crowd that McClose had left the air, Ireland had forfeited.

Of course, we were all bustled to St. Mungos upon the realization that my sister was still alive. We weren't there long.

The medi-witch somberly told us that she had broken a bone in her neck that couldn't be fixed. She didn't have much time. The Latin looking girl, Spinnet, punched the wall before letting out a string of colorful words to the witch. The rest of them looked too overcome with emotion.

I laughed.

We gathered into the tiny room where tears and broken hearts were abundant. I could hardly breathe for joy. My sister lay on the small bed looking more frail and hurt than I had ever seen her. A living demonstration of my mind.

George dropped into a chair on the side of her bed and grabbed her hand, while I sat demurely on the edge of the bed and patted her other fingers. Across the expanse of eerily sterile sheets, that Weasley was whispering furiously into her ear and Katie was nodding. The smallest gesture that you could ever see.

I looked away and smirked to the man in the dreadlocks. He hung back, unlike the rest.

I was brought back to my sister when she squeezed my hand and tugged hers away. Reaching delicately over to withdraw the rose from her hairband, she handed the crushed mockery to me.

"I forgive you, Maddie," Was all she whispered, before turning her face away. An air of finality was held in her features and I felt that they would be her last words to me. A sister and a traitor. The words are synonymous.

Bending over, I kissed her gently on the forehead as I placed the remnant of pink petals in my pocket. "G'night Kate." I whispered cheerfully in her ear, before heading out of the door, only to sink into an armchair that was meant for waiting. Only for waiting. When you came to this ward, there would be no good news.

Waiting for the end.

And that's what came. For Katie that is. And I helped. I was merely a cheerful servant, aiding her on her way.

Kate was always the sun and I was the moon. Katie shone all day and all night. People would bask in her presence and she would light the way for others as often as she could. No one paid any attention to me, to the moon. All of them went to sleep before they could see me shine.

I never got the chance to. I was always overshadowed by her. Always.

Now, as the sun set into the distance, the night has begun. The mighty moon rules the night with such power and such mortality that the sun could ever give.

The solemnity of the night has begun.

It is my turn to shine, my dear Kate.

G' Night.


	7. Promise

Chapter 6: Promise

Someone must hate me. Up there, someone must be laughing at my cruel misfortune and broken dreams.

I suppose that I should amend that…Someone must hate us. All of us.

It's so cruel that she died doing something that she loved. So ironic. Too ironic to be true.

But I guess that it is true. It can't not be.

It's cruel that I had to pretend to be strong when the only girl that I had ever loved in _that way_ slipped away. It's cruel that she had to break the one thing that magic couldn't fix. It's cruel that I don't even know what to do anymore.

After the mad rush to St. Mungo's, a medi-wizard pushed me coldly into the room first, and muttered under his breath that I was the one that she wanted to see the most. I just sank into a hardly conformable chair by the side of the bed and gripped her hand.

That had to be the most frightening moment in my life, looking over and seeing my Katie's face pale and ashen. Her blue eyes squeezed shut with unimaginable pain. I was afraid for her, then, as I am afraid for her now.

She looked barely alive when I leaned over and whispered in her ear. I asked her if she remembered when we first went to Hogwarts? When we won the cup? When Fred and I first opened our shop, and she came in to test each and every item personally? When Fred and Angelina got married? When she finally made England's team?

They were all such happy memories. I was trying to keep her spirits up until the very end, though it hurt. It hurt to recount every blessed thing that happened with her and think that there will be no more times like that. No more memories.

As I was telling one of Lee's infamous 'talk-back tales', Katie squeezed my hand a little harder and her eyes flew open. "Please don't let go", she pleaded under her breath.

My heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest as I gripped her hand in return. "Never." I countered, and conjured up a sad Weasley smile. "I will love you forever, Katherine Bell."

She cast her eyes over me and a tear fell onto her cheek. "I love _you _George Weasley. Until the end of time." She leaned her head on my shoulder wearily.

"Until the end of time." I agreed, kissing her on the forehead.

Giving one last glance around the room and a smile to the occupants, she gave a heartbreaking sigh.

Then the pressure on my hand was gone.

_"You're missing a decimal point." Katie Bell mused, as she ran her finger down the line of sloppily written numbers. "You're missing quite a few, actually. How do you two get along?" She ran her hand over the smooth oak of the desk before leaning over the edge of it and coming face to face with Fred._

_"Government Secret."__ He confessed, grinning and holding up an ugly brown Headless Hat. "Lee's Christmas present." He called to George, as he threw it over his shoulder. _

_"How many does the man need?", Katie admonished, still hanging upside down over the edge of the counter. "You've given him one every year since you invented the bloody things!"_

_"One to go with everything that he owns, o 'course." George chimed in, dropping a box on the floor of the store. "And what Fred means is, that when you're busy, he just asks Angelina to add 'em up for us."_

_"Foolproof business management."__ Katie agreed, rolling her eyes._

_"We think so. Oy, Katie, your face looks tomato-like when you do that." Fred laughed and tossed a Canary Cream at her. _

_George let out a laugh and pulled out another Headless Hat. "So how much did our Profits add up to this month, Katie?"_

_Katie sat quickly up and rested her head in her hands. "What would you boys do without me?", She giggled, and began adding up numbers again._

I don't know what to do anymore. I am so lost without her. I know that everyone else is, too, but I can't talk about it yet. All I can do is wonder where she is, if she's safe, if she's happy.

I don't know when I'll see her again. Of if I will. But I have to believe that I will, or I won't be able to go on.

Katie Bell…I don't know where you are, or if you're even listening…but I love you. I will always love you.

I don't know how much time until forever, but I will love you beyond that.

Beyond forever.

And for all time.


	8. Bet

Chapter 7: Bet

Even if I hadn't have rolled onto a copy of the _Daily Prophet _when I woke up this morning, I wouldn't have forgotten what today was.

Even if I wasn't nearly mauled to death by an angry owl, I wouldn't have forgotten to pay the bloody thing.

In an irate way, I threw a couple of knuts out of the window and shooed the bird away. Picking up the rolled paper, I smoothed it out on my bed.

**1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF ENGLAND CHASER'S DEATH**

Bell's Deadly Fall: Details and Witnesses Revisited!

I sigh and run my fingers over the picture of Katie. For once, in this one she isn't falling. I'm in it, I realize as I hold it up to the window.

It's in front of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes; right after she made the England National Team. Katie is laughing and spinning around Alicia, who looks like she is trying not to laugh, and Angelina is leaning on Fred, who is clearly demonstrating how some of the products work. And George is standing on the side of it all with me. We were planning something then. I don't remember what, anymore. A prank or joke of some sort, most likely. Something to further our sophomoric reputations.

Katie's in the England's Robes and under the picture, the caption reads "Katie Bell's death under mysterious circumstances left her family and friends devastated. Now that the truth is out, may they live in peace."

I grunt at the bullshit of it all and toss that particular issue onto my bedside table. Peace isn't quite the word for it. We can cope, but that is all that we can do.

Things have gotten much better, though. Somehow we can make our way through life again and somehow we can feel again.

Two weeks before today, a sobbing Madison Bell stumbled into the Ministry and held out her hands. "I killed her!", she howled, according to the Daily Prophet and Mr.Weasley himself, who happened to be there.

She is now in Azkaban for 1st Degree Magical Murder, I don't know how the dememtors are living off of her, though. The girl is ice, through and through.

It gives all of us, especially George, a little bit of help just knowing that it couldn't have been prevented. According to the ministry, little Maddie Bell has been planning her sister's murder for years and the Minister thinks that she may as well have been killed doing something that she loved.

We beg to differ. It would have been better if she wasn't killed at all, but that isn't an option.

We can all talk about her now, casually, and it doesn't seem like there is anything between us anymore. We look for comfort within each other.

George has thrown himself into WWW and can talk and joke again. It's almost like old times, except instead of six...there are five.

Of the five of us, now, Alicia had been the hardest to bring back. She angers so easily and it's hard to talk to her. But she's back now. She's the old Alicia. Since Madison turned herself in, Alicia hadn't been sleeping. So she's been at my flat staying in the back bedroom.

So it's sufficient to say that neither of us has been getting much sleep. I always hear her crying in the middle of the night and I just hold her until she feels safe again. It's still so strange. Until Katie died, I was so sure that Alicia wasn't afraid of anything. It took a tragedy to prove me wrong.

I hadn't wanted to be proven wrong. But now I suppose that it's safe to say that I have fallen madly and deeply in bloody love with Alicia. Katie would have liked that bit of gossip. She would have liked that because we were her own personal project when she died.

Fred and Angelina are happy together and Angelina cheered up when people could talk about Katie. She tells us now that it was the lack of talking that made it feel surreal, and she didn't want to believe it.

No one believes this either...Angelina is pregnant. The word on everyone's lips is 'finally!' and for Fred it is all one big celebration. The way they both go around with a big grin on their faces is almost sickening, but Alicia says it's endearing.

Okay. One of your best friends slapping you on your back and telling you to 'Just wait until you're a dad someday!'. So, endearing is the word for that?

I was thinking bizarre.

But I'm happy for them, I really am.

The baby is due in March. On Katie's birthday. I think Angelina had something to do with this, but you never can be sure.

And me? I'm just getting on gettin' on. But it's possible that I miss Katie more than any of 'em. I'm their rock, their stone. They unload all of their worries onto me. I'm happy with my place. It has always been my place. But I can't help thinking how it would be different if she would have lived. She was one of my best friends.

"_Mindy McClose will put four through the hoop, and Kevin McClose 'll save all of Bulgaria's shots." Katie smirked at Lee from across Fred and Angelina's living room. _

"_Are you joking? Krum will catch the snitch before Ireland scores. They don't want a repeat of the World Cup. Bulgaria has been hiding ever since!", Lee sneered from across the room. _

"_Bloody. Hell.", Alicia frowned, scooting closer to the radio. "Must you do this every game?"_

"_Yes, we must, my dear Alicia. Ten sickles that Bulgaria wins _and _catches the snitch." Lee held out his hand to his blonde haired opposition. _

"_It's tradition!", Katie admonished, thinking and muttering something under her breath. "All right. Ireland wins but doesn't catch the snitch and McClose scores at least two goals." She took Lee's strong hand and shook it with equal force._

"_Ha! You'll see, Bell!", Lee threatened jokingly as he dropped his hand._

"_I will see, Jordan. I will see your ten sickles in the palm of my hand!", Katie laughed at her friend. "Oy! Turn the radio up!"_

We would always bet on everything. The scores of a game, the number of people that George can successfully con out of their money, the time it took Angelina to get ready in the morning, number of minutes it took Fred to turn slightly green at his own wedding, how long it took Alicia to talk herself out of a detention.

Everything.

Now as everyone asks me where I think that she is, who she is with, how she is...I only have one answer. It's not definite, but I feel that it could be.

I say that Katie is happy somewhere. That she is surrounded by friends and that she is waiting for all of us.

I'd bet that she's waiting for us. I'd put everything that I owned on it.

I'd stake my life on it.

See you soon, Kate,

I never lose.


	9. To Forever

Chapter 8: Forever

_Behind Hogwarts, on a lonely forgotten strip of land, they lay. The sun was bright and a tree was standing in the distance. Strong. Immovable._

_These were their glory days. They never ended, but they began right here. Great things stem from humble beginnings, and this was as humble as it could be._

_On their backs, they watched the clouds go by. Six of them. All six of them. Two red-heads, a boy with dread-locks, a Spanish girl, a tall dark girl and a girl with blonde hair._

_Here they lay, not knowing what they future held or if they would always be friends. Always._

_Not noticing that they lay on the edge of oblivion, they smiled at quips and laughed at jokes. _

_Running her hands through the tall grass beside her, the blonde felt the fluff of a dandelion underneath her fingers. Gently plucking it from its resting place in the ground, she held it up to the sun._

_During that crucial moment, everyone was silent as they watched the girl survey the snowy white dandelion. _

_Smiling softly, the girl tenderly blew onto it and the seeds spread out into the wind. The wind that was constant and unchangeable. White and pure, the dandelion, a sacrifice to the unforgiving earth._

"_I wish that we could stay like this forever." The girl proclaimed, leaning her head back down and watching the clouds. "Forever."_

_In reverence, they watched the white drifts dance in the wind and they, too, wished for forever._

_Those children on the edge of nothingness didn't know what to believe, but they didn't know not to believe. Hope was permenant there on that strip of hallowed ground and above them, the sunlight streched on for immeasurable distances._

_They didn't know how long forever was, but they knew that it would come. And they would be as they were, t__hanks to that one, pure dandelion blown by an innocent girl that had no idea what was to come._

_They were both sacrificed into the morning sun._

_To Forever._

**_Fin._**


End file.
